Dust supply from river floodplains: the case of the lower Huang He (Yellow River) recorded in a loess–palaeosol sequence from the Mangshan Plateau

The Mangshan Plateau is located on the south bank of the Huang He (Yellow River) just west of the city of Zhengzhou, well outside the Loess Plateau in central China. Mixing models of the grain‐size data indicate that the loess deposits are mixtures of three loess components. Comparison of the mixing model with existing models established for a series of loess–palaeosol sequences from the Loess Plateau indicates that the Mangshan loess has been supplied from a proximal dust source, the Huang He floodplain, during major dust outbreaks. The high accumulation rates, the composition of the loess components, and especially the high proportions of a sandy loess component support this. Owing to the exceptionally high accumulation rates, the Mangshan grain size, magnetic susceptibility and carbonate records provide a high‐resolution archive of environmental and climate change. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermal stability of a layer with permeable boundaries and variable gravitational field

The aim of this paper is to investigate the thermal stability of a fluid layer with permeable boundaries and a variable gravitational field. It is observed that the principle of exchange of stabilities is valid when the layer is heated form below and the complex growth rate of an arbitrary oscillatory mode exists outside of a circle whose radius depends upon the permeability parameter, Prandtl number and wavelength of the mode. In the case of a layer heated from below, gravity increasing upward has a destabilizing effect whereas the permeability parameter has a stabilizing effect.     

Radiative and free-convection effects on the oscillatory flow past a vertical plate

The interaction of free convection with thermal radiation of the oscillatory flow past a vertical plate is studied. The Rosseland approximation is used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation.     

Physical parameters of near-Earth asteroid 1982 DV

Visual and infrared observations were made of Amor asteroid 1982 DV during its discovery apparition. Broadband visual and near-infrared photometry shows that it is an S-class asteroid. Narrowband spectrophotometry shows an absorption feature due to olivine or pyroxene or both centered at 0.93 μm. Applying a nonrotating thermal model to 10-μm photometry, the geometric albedo is calculated to be approximately 0.27. The geometric albedo for a slowly rotating, rocky surface was calculated for 1 night to be 0.15, consistent with S-class asteroid albedos. Thus, 1982 DV is either one of the most reflective S-class asteroids known, or a significant amount of bare rock is exposed on the asteroid's surface. For the nonrotating model, ellipsoidal dimensions for 1982 DV are 3.5 × 1.4 × 1.4 km.     

Three dimensional simulation of fluid flow in X‐ray CT images of porous media

A numerical scheme is developed in order to simulate fluid flow in three dimensional (3‐D) microstructures. The governing equations for steady incompressible flow are solved using the semi‐implicit method for pressure‐linked equations (SIMPLE) finite difference scheme within a non‐staggered grid system that represents the 3‐D microstructure. This system allows solving the governing equations using only one computational cell. The numerical scheme is verified through simulating fluid flow in idealized 3‐D microstructures with known closed form solutions for permeability. The numerical factors affecting the solution in terms of convergence and accuracy are also discussed. These factors include the resolution of the analysed microstructure and the truncation criterion. Fluid flow in 2‐D X‐ray computed tomography (CT) images of real porous media microstructure is also simulated using this numerical model. These real microstructures include field cores of asphalt mixes, laboratory linear kneading compactor (LKC) specimens, and laboratory Superpave gyratory compactor (SGC) specimens. The numerical results for the permeability of the real microstructures are compared with the results from closed form solutions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Axial convergence in a well-mixed estuary

Transverse secondary circulations involving surface convergence, observed in a well-mixed estuary in North Wales, are made visible by the collection of surface material along an axial line which extends continuously for many kilometres through the estuary. The circulation and axial convergence, however, are seen only during the flood phase of the tide and no similar behaviour has been observed during the ebb phase.Convergent circulations in the estuary are associated with small but steady transverse density gradients in the cross-section, produced by non-uniform advection of the longitudinal gradient through the channel. A diagnostic model, using measured mean distributions of cross-sectional density, indicates surface transverse velocities (～0.1 ms^?1) similar to those observed in the estuary. The model further predicts appreciable transverse divergent currents at a fractional depth of 0.75: a prediction which has been tested in the estuary using a vertical array of accurately resolving current direction indicators.